Happy New Year!

I have a good feeling about this year. I spent this New Year’s Eve on my own, but it turned out to be a really nice evening. At sunset I sat by the pool with a journal and pen and thought about the upcoming year, and what I’d like to make happen. I decided I want to work on fostering some positive habits and focus on a select few goals- just first steps, not everything all at once. 

Then as I was heading back upstairs to the apartment, I saw all these pastel party balloons drifting randomly along the patio. I went back downstairs to gather them up, thinking they had escaped from somewhere and worrying about litter and animals dying of obstructed intestines. It turned out that a couple living in the adjacent building of my complex were dropping balloons off the balcony to make things look festive and to foster a spirit of community. So, I relunctantly let the balloons be and took only one back up to my apartment. I met the couple and shared a few beers- it was nice to meet some of my neighbors. And then I tidied and organized- got things in order inside the apartment and texted with a friend on the west coast.

At 11:30, I rolled out to check out the firework display down at Aloha Tower. It turned out to be one of the nicest firework displays I have seen in ages. Never in my 10 and a half years in Chicago had I gone downtown to watch the New Year’s fireworks. There is something to be said for a 70° evening to encourage ushering in of the new year- I stood and watched fireworks in a t-shirt. There was very little wind and I wasn’t too far from the barge, so even though I didn’t pay to get onto the end of the pier, I had a fantastic view of the fireworks being shot up over the water. This year I saw a new kind of firework that I hadn’t ever seen before- bundles of sparks that hover in the air, and take forever to settle. Very odd looking. My favorite fireworks of the evening were these rainbow bursts, in light colors that it looked like a bunch of Funfetti. Just behind the bursts these spiral whistlers would go off. It really was reminiscent of a Funfetti cake with golden candles, or party horns busting in just a split second behind- very festive indeed. There were also the best big salutes ever! I love to feel those bangs reverberate in my chest. And at the end of the finale, one whole section of the sky was filled with willows that faded into streams of golden glitter- so many of them. It was simply gorgeous.

There must have been plenty of fireworks and firecrackers in my neighborhood as well, because when I got home the air was hazy with smoke and you could taste the gunpowder on your tongue. Two hours later, the occasional boom is still puncturing the night. It really was a good feeling to be out and welcoming the new year. It felt really right. I feel happy! Hoorah 2012!

Sunset

 

Tonight's sunset, behind Honolulu Harbor.

Happy things

Most of you know I'm living in a new place with a new job in a weird time zone, and that I'm pretty damn far away from anybody that I feel close to. There are definitely moments when it's hard to keep my chin up. My new job can be stressful, at times demanding, and of course since it's new to me, I sometimes screw up. And I often don't have anyone to commiserate with. You know how you can get down on one part of your life, and suddenly all these negative feelings about everything come out of the woodwork? I started to worry that all those feelings and attitudes were going to start shaping my life.

This past Thursday, I was able to talk to one of my friends who I hadn't spoken with since I left the mainland. It was a good conversation. She made a good suggestion to help me keep focused on the positive- write down two happy things about each day. I liked the idea, and thought why not share my happy moments with all of you? So here are four happy things that happened in the past two days:

1. That conversation with said friend. It is really great to catch up with loved ones, talk things over, and share.
2. On Thursday after lunch, I got to eat shave ice from Waiola's. Shave ice is pretty self explanatory, ice shaved into a power and flavored with syrups. It's a lot finer and softer than a snow cone, and the flavors are loads better. I had lychee and mango topped with lilikoi (passion fruit) cream, and it was yummy. Though I have now learned that condensed milk is the bomb as far as shave ice toppings go.
3. On Friday another good friend of mine called me while she was driving her car, because she had heard a song on the radio that reminded her of me ^_^ (Can anyone guess what the song was? It wasn't Bowie). It was also really helpful to talk things over with her.
4. When I left work last night it was still early enough to be sunny, and the sun felt fantastic on my body. I could feel my black bike shorts soaking it all up. And when I got home the last of the day's sun was streaming in through my bedroom window. I got to curl up in the sun with a nice gin and tonic and watch Cheers. 

I already feel like it has made a difference! So thanks, K, for the idea! One last thing, Old MD Girl inspired me to take the one hundred push ups challenge. My baseline is 0 regular push ups and 8 knee push ups. Ha! Nowhere to go but up!

I am here!

In Hawaii. I've been here for two months, and been very lazy about getting the promised blog going, but here it is at last! I've just had a most pleasant evening involving some of my favorite things about being here in Honolulu, which was quite timely as I was feeling a bit depressed earlier in the week.

My Thursday routine is to go to an evening ashtanga yoga class in Chinatown. It's challenging, but that's good. I need to get back into good shape and I really like to feel my body working. And it's a time to let go of everything going on outside and just focus on my breathing and the postures. In some ways it reminds me a lot of karate. When class is done I am soaked through with sweat, but feeling really relaxed and open. I go use a little bathroom that has straw mats on the floor, where I can hear a fountain splashing just outside. I really like that bathroom. Then I get on my bike and roll home through the night. Biking at night in Hawaii is very pleasant: 1) the temperature is perfect and the air feels good against your skin, 2) there is a lot less traffic, and 3) certain flowers bloom at night that smell really good. I also like riding through Chinatown at night. It's my favorite area of the city so far. The streets are narrower there than elsewhere in Honolulu so it's less sprawling, but at the same time it's not built up. I actually feel like it has more of a European flavor- it even has one street closed off to vehicles, and has open-air markets every day. At night it smells like jasmine.

Now I am at home in my little breezy apartment eating a breadfruit. It's my first breadfruit, and I am liking it quite a bit. The flavor is sweet and almost tastes like some kind of artificial fruit candy, though not in a bad way. When ripe like this, it has the consistency of pizza dough. I am definitely going to buy it again, I have read that it is a very versatile fruit and can be used as a potato substitute when less mature. You can even fry up chips with it. It's a pretty versatile and important tropical fruit.

P.S. Chipotle hummus is awesome too.